PERRY COUNTY 444 JUNIATA COUNTY 446 MONROE COUNTY 448 CLARION COUNTY 452 CLINTON COUNTY 456 WYOMING COUNTY 460 CARBON COUNTY 464 ELK COUNTY 468 BLAIR COUNTY 472 SULLIVAN COUNTY 478 FOREST COUNTY 480 LAWRENCE COUNTY 484 FULTON COUNTY 490 MONTOUR COUNTY 492 SNYDER COUNTY 496 CAMERON COUNTY 500 LACKAWANNA COUNTY 504 PHILADELPHIA HISTORIC FIRSTS The first parks in North America provided for the pleasure of the people were dedicated by William Penn at the settlement of Philadelphia in 1682. They were the North Eastern, South Eastern, North Western, South Western, and Centre Squares, now known respectively as Franklin, Washington, Logan, Rittenhouse, and Penn Squares. In a letter dated 1683, William Penn alludes to the glass-house of the Free Society of Traders. Soon after this a glass-house was erected at Frankford by English Friends. The first almanac printed in America was “Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense, or, America’s Messinger. Being an Almanack for the Year of Grace, 1686.” It was edited by Samuel Atkins, and published by William Bradford, 1685. The first paper mill in America was built by William Rittenhouse, on the banks of the Wissahickon Creek, in the year 1690. “A new Primmer or Methodical Direction to attain the True Spelling, Reading and Writing of English.” This was the first American school textbook; though it was published in New York in 1698, its author was Francis Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown. The first presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was formed in Philadelphia in 1705. It was composed of seven ministers, and included Philadelphia, Maryland, Delaware, and the Eastern shore of Virginia. The first botanical garden in America was started in 1705 by Dr. Christopher Witt, at the southeast corner of Germantown Avenue and High Street. John Bartram began his famous gardens in 1728 at Gray’s Ferry on the Schuylkill River.